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Help:Episode Page Guide
Episode pages are the centerpiece of the entire wiki. Each one serves as a record of that week's entry in the Off Book catalog, and offers all sorts of fun and useful details. The following is an explanation of the basic components of an episode page, based on norms emerging in the community. Page Title Episode pages are given the name of that week's musical. As outlined in the , episode titles should be italicized (without quotation marks), and use title case. As page titles cannot be formatted directly, the italics need to be applied in an edit. To do this, insert the following template code in the source editor: }} Infobox The episode infobox is the next element in the page. If you are using the source or classic editor, just paste in the following: Leave blank any fields that don't apply. * The "episode name" field will default to the page title when left blank (which should be the episode title anyway). * For "number," just put the number. No symbols. * For guests, always provide a link, either to a guest profile on this wiki, their Wikipedia page, or their Earwolf profile page. * "Release" refers to the release date. It should be formatted like this: January 1, 2000. * "Status" should read either "Free" or "Stitcher Premium." Note the external link on the latter. * "Earwolf" refers to the official Earwolf entry for that episode. Link text should read "Earwolf" (without quotes). * Remember to italicize the links to the previous and next episodes. Opening Paragraph Every episode page begins with a few sentences of intro. The first word should be the page title, in bold italics. Usually, this text describes the episode a bit, identifies guests and live recording location/date (where applicable), and briefly summarizes the plot or theme. Episode Description In the first labeled section, new episode pages currently use the description text from the official Earwolf page. Make sure to include a reference linking back to Earwolf in this case (link text: Official Episode Description). However, this is mostly a placeholder measure until the Plot sections are completed. Plot A major ongoing project for the wiki is writing complete plot summaries for every episode. Source This section is collapsed by default to avoid spoilers. To do this, we use tags. Editors should include the following wikitext in the source, immediately after the Plot heading, and before the Act I subheading: Then, at the very end of the plot section, leave a blank line after the text and append the following: Show/Hide Style The summary should be written in present tense, as if the reader is watching the action unfold in real-time. Present perfect tense is also commonly used. Past tense should only be used if the events being described occurred in the past, as perceived by the characters. Take this example from O Little Town of Doggywood: The excited, all-dog passengers on the Puppy Christmas Train are traveling to Doggywood to visit the Doggywood Bowl for a Christmas Eve concert ("Puppy Christmas Train"). Best friends and beagle brothers Chauncey and Ralph arrive at Doggywood station after a journey through the countryside. Chauncey admits that he wants to stay in Doggywood after the Big Puppy Concert to join the Doggy Chorus and confesses he thinks Ralph is a great songwriter. The two decide to stay in Doggywood to pursue their dreams ("You & Me & I"). Note the present tense action. Now consider this example from All's Wellford That Ends Willy: The foreman informs the dockworkers that their jobs have been taken over by a syndicate. The group heads to the local pub for the traditional meal of the recently laid-off. There, they are joined by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has also lost his job due to a Mob takeover. A 9-year-old paperboy dies after consuming an inordinate amount of whisky. However, before expiring in a pool of spilled absinthe, he entreats the others in the room to save the town's jobs ("A Drink for All Occasions"). Here, the action is still in present tense. However, note the use of present perfect ("has ____") in the first and third sentences. The dockworkers and Clarence Thomas all lost their jobs in the past; however, as those events bear directly on the action, and the focus is more on the present moment, present perfect tense is appropriate. Here is one more example, from Pump the Stakes: The officer gives Jeff her card (which lists her number as 9-1-1), and observes, from the tan line on his ring finger, that he is either recently divorced or widowed. Jack clarifies that his mother died, after which Jeff divorced her, post-mortem. The police officer approves of Jeff's choice of coating mozzarella sticks in sea-salt, and asks him to call her, which he promises to do even though he prefers e-mail ("Cop Card"). Again, present tense is the default. However, in the second sentence, Jack explains to the police officer that his father is both widowed and divorced, using the past tense. His mother's death and his father's decision to divorce her are distinct events which occurred in the past. Past tense seems appropriate. The best way to familiarize yourself with the tone of a plot summary is to read plot summaries. If you have any questions, ask for advice on the Discussions page or on our Discord channel. Other Notes * In all three of the above examples, note the song titles in parentheses. A plot summary should include parenthetical references to each song as it comes up. If a song title itself uses parentheses, those can be converted to square brackets and nested inside the outer parentheses. * The plot description should only deal with the internal story elements of the musical. References to the hosts, the cast, other episodes, etc. belong elsewhere. * Plot descriptions should be complete enough to logically connect each song to the next. Some contributors find it helpful to think in terms of one or two songs per paragraph. Musical Cast The cast of characters is divided into subsections, arranged alphabetically by performer last name. Under each performer heading, their roles are listed in order of appearance as an unnumbered (bulleted) list. Ideally, each entry in the cast list should be more than just a name without context. Try to include enough information to situate that character within the story. This is often a source of humor, as well. Some examples from the above musicals: * Beagle brother Ralph * Miscellaneous Puppy Christmas Train commuter #2 * Quitterie, one of eight maids a-milking * Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas * Sick newspaper delivery boy * Rufus von Tingle, former head butler * Dad/Jeff Maine * Officer Jeanette Woman * Alligator Jerry As you can see, descriptions don't need to be long, and they don't have to be funny. It just happens that, sometimes, short names like "Beagle brother Ralph" and "Alligator Jerry" are both. As of this writing, capitalization norms for these descriptive character names are not yet set. Some editors capitalize major words ("Aquarium Worker Who Likes Anemones"), some use sentence case and commas ("Karen D., another of the Karens"), and some use parentheses or other punctuation. So long as the name/description is reasonably short (as in, no sentence-length digressions on their role), no real restrictions apply. Talkback Cast Live episodes (and the occasional studio episode) follow the performance of the musical with an improvised talkback session, as if the musical had actually been performed in a theater. Here, this sketch is given its own cast list, separate from the Musical Cast. Songs Our song lists and timestamps are a valuable resource for the fan community. Here are a few pointers. * This section should only contain song names and timestamps. * Song titles are placed in quotation marks, wihout italics. * Timestamps are added in parentheses, in superscript. * For episodes behind the Stitcher Premium paywall, timestamps from the ad-free premium episodes should be used. However, for those still in the free feed, timestamps from the ad-inclusive free versions are preferred, as most Off Book fans do not have access to premium episodes. * Earwolf usually names about three songs in their official episode descriptions. As they are the ones providing the podcast for us, we typically adopt these song titles as offical. * When naming songs from a given episode, contributors should avoid extreme interpretations. Usually, a song's chorus or refrain leads to a "natural" title. In cases where there is no refrain, sometimes a phrase from one of the lines will do. Sometimes a descriptive title is appropriate, like "The Plan" or "Rehearsal." * When available, song titles should link to the corresponding song page (a concept still in development). * The closing song (or cut song in the case of Talkback segments) is separated from the list by a space and the appropriate label (body text, no special formatting). Other Episode-Specific Sections Many Off Book episodes contain songs, scenes, or jokes that lend themselves to being recorded in the wiki format, usually as lists. Contributors can find many examples throughout the wiki, but here are just a few: * Darla's Rider * The Machines' List of Demands * Official Hungry LOST Survivor Games Rules * Three True Facts * List of J.K. Rowling's Hats These lists tend to be offered without context, as they are essentially inside jokes, requiring knowledge of the story or song in question to be fully appreciated. As We Say Every Week... Each episode's sign-off is placed inside a special quote template: When entering the quote, most use a tag to display the quote on two lines, as a kind of couplet. So, for example, the source for the sign-off from Hungry LOST Survivor Games is formatted like this: and displays like this: Trivia Any useful information that does not fit into the above categories can be placed in a bulleted list in the Trivia section. Gallery When images are available for a given episode, they should be placed in the Gallery section. * Always credit the source of any image in the description on the image's page. * Don't post art or photos without permission. References Any tags used in the article to credit sources or link elsewhere will create footnotes in this section. For a good example of this, take a look at The South Will Write Again. Categories All episodes should be assigned the following categories: Episodes, the guest's name, and the type (not the title) of closing song (like New Phone, Who Dis?). Additionally, live episodes should be given the "Live episodes" category. After that, there are a growing number of other categories that can be added if relevant, such as themes (Talking animals, Ghosts).